Posted by Beth Margolis on June 25, 2018
Last year I joined the board of ImproveCareNow (“ICN”). ICN is a collaborative health care network dedicated to improving the care and outcomes for children with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (also called Inflammatory Bowel Disease or IBD). What excites me about ICN is that it has developed a transformative model for the delivery of health care unlike anything I have ever read about or experienced myself.
The model includes the full integration and coordination of all care providers – doctors, advanced practice clinicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and dietitians; it is data driven – all centers record and share information about treatment outcomes and best practices; and it operates on the core principle that everyone involved in the treatment & management of IBD, including the parents and patients have as much to offer about how to make their medical treatment effective as the clinical care providers themselves.
The ImproveCareNow model has been remarkably successful in improving outcomes for its patients. Since its inception eleven years ago, ICN has raised the rate of remission for patients cared for at participating centers from 60% to 81% with no new treatments. The network has grown from a few treatment centers to 109 centers throughout the United States and abroad, and all but one of the 10 best children’s hospitals (ranked by U.S. News and World Report) for treating these diseases are now ICN centers.
Every year ICN hosts two Community Conferences where the clinical care providers, patients, and parents come together to share their knowledge and experience, and to actively learn about ways to continuously improve the care for patients treated at ICN centers. It is incredibly important that as many patients and parents as possible are able to participate in ICN Community Conferences. To make this possible we must be able to offer scholarships for those families who otherwise could not afford to attend the conferences. I hope you can make a donation to help support this effort at the following link:
I attended the Community Conference last fall and I was overwhelmed by the remarkable health care network and community ICN has created. Here are some reflections from other parent-attendees, which highlight some additional reasons why supporting their continued attendance is critical:
It is my belief that as ICN continues to flourish it will serve as THE model for health care treatment of all sorts. I’m proud to support this network. Thank you for joining me.
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Together We Can Keep Patients and Parents Front & Center at our Community Conferences. You can help by making a donation and by spreading the word about this fundraiser. Our goal is to raise $30K by the end of June. Every dollar donated will be matched, up to $25K - we're half way there - let's keep going!!